Expert Advanced Heart Failure Care at UPMC Passavant
- UPMC Passavant
- May 30
- 4 min read
UPMC is one of the most recognized and experienced heart transplant centers in the country. If you or a loved one has heart disease, trust the experts at UPMC. The program offers care for a wide range of heart conditions and treats high-risk patients with great outcomes.
UPMC recently opened a new Advanced Heart Failure Evaluation Clinic at UPMC Passavant. This new location, located at Passavant’s Cranberry Township campus, provides cardiac services, evaluations for ventricular assist device (VAD) treatment and heart transplant, and world-class care close to home. The UPMC team will work together to determine if a heart transplant or ventricular assist device (VAD) is right for you during a single trip to the evaluation clinic at UPMC Passavant.
What is a Ventricular Assist Device?
If you need a heart transplant, a ventricular assist device (VAD) can help your heart work and give you a better quality of life while you wait for a heart transplant. Doctors also use VADs as a destination therapy to improve the lives of people who can’t have a heart transplant or to help the heart heal after a heart attack, heart surgery, or other heart issues.
A VAD is a mechanical device that helps the heart pump blood to the body. VADs most often provide support to the left ventricle, the major pumping chamber of the heart. But they can also support both the right and left chambers of the heart.
The team at UPMC often recommends VADs as a bridge to heart transplant when medical treatment or surgery are no longer options. Once implanted, a VAD sustains your heart while you wait for your transplant. It lets you live a more normal life outside the hospital while you wait for your new heart.
What is a Heart Transplant?
A heart transplant is a surgery to remove a diseased heart from a patient and replace it with a healthy one from an organ donor. You may be a candidate for heart transplant if you suffer from severe heart disease such as:
Advanced heart failure
Arrhythmia
Cardiomyopathy
Congenital heart disease
Coronary artery disease resistant to other treatments
Heart valve disease not amenable to valve repair or replacement
Additionally, patients who have received a prognosis that suggests a risk of mortality within the next year if a transplant is not performed may be eligible for heart transplant.
The Evaluation Process
The UPMC team assesses every person referred to the program. UPMC’s cardiologists and surgeons work together to decide the treatment option that is right for you.
The team will start with a thorough evaluation conducted at UPMC Passavant. The evaluation will help the team determine which care pathway – a heart transplant or a VAD – provides the highest likelihood for the best possible outcome based on your condition and medical history. The evaluation includes:
Blood work
Diagnostic testing
Multiple consultations with the heart transplant care team
A review of your medical and psychosocial history
From your first heart consult through world-class treatment and post-surgery care, UPMC experts are here for you every step of the way.
UPMC’s Legacy of Excellence
The UPMC Heart Transplant Program is among the top centers in the nation for patient outcomes as reported by the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients (SRTR). UPMC is the national leader in 90-day survival rate following heart transplantation and is among the top nationally for patient survival rates at 30 days and one-year posttransplant. In addition to achieving excellent outcomes, UPMC was the highest volume transplant center in Pennsylvania in 2023.
UPMC’s advanced heart failure experts have pioneered transplant and VAD technology for more than 30 years. UPMC was the first medical center to discharge a patient with a VAD in 1990 and is one of a few centers that has heart recipients living 40 years or more after transplant. This is a testament to the team’s commitment to providing each patient with advanced, long-term care.
Innovations in Advanced Heart Failure Care
UPMC has also accomplished groundbreaking milestones in the field of heart transplant, including being the first center in the world to perform a heart-liver transplant and discharge a patient after cardiac assist device implantation. Their skilled team manages complex cases, including multi-organ transplants, highly sensitized recipients, congenital heart disease patients, and now bloodless transplants. The program recently performed the first bloodless heart-kidney transplant. This innovative transplant option allows the team to provide lifesaving care to more patients at UPMC.
The team utilizes the latest technology for organ preservation and strategies to make more donors available for patients. With our strong foundation of excellence and innovation, they continue to pioneer new advancements in heart transplant and provide lifesaving, patient-centered care.
Meet Lisa Tork
When Lisa Tork wasn’t feeling well at the start of November 2018, she thought she simply had the flu. But by the middle of the month, she still couldn’t shake the illness, and it wasn’t long before the situation turned worse.
“My daughter came home from school and found me,” Lisa recalls. “I was completely out of it.”
Lisa went to her local hospital where doctors found a large clot in the left ventricle of her heart. She was quickly transferred to UPMC for further evaluation. She underwent an evaluation by Mary Keebler, MD, medical director of the UPMC Advanced Heart Failure Center. It was clear to Dr. Keebler that Lisa’s heart couldn’t pump a sufficient amount of blood to the rest of her body, a condition known as cardiogenic shock. Doctors determined that Lisa would need a new heart, and in December, they implanted a left ventricular assist device (LVAD) to act as a bridge-to-transplantation.
In May of 2019, Lisa received the call that a donor heart was available. Today, she is grateful for her new heart. “My recovery is beyond what my doctors and I ever believed it could be,” Lisa explains. “They told me I’ve defied everything they thought would be possible.”
More than four years after her heart transplant, Lisa is back to her normal routine. She continues to meet with the UPMC Heart Transplant team through regular in-person and virtual appointments to monitor her condition.
“If there was ever someone who I was meant to cross paths with in life, it was Dr. Keebler,” Lisa says. “She has been there since the beginning and is such a comfort for me.”
To learn more, or to schedule an appointment, visit upmc.com/HeartTransplant.
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